rust on 2013 subaru legacy
Asked by cegbuck9 Jan 16, 2016 at 08:36 AM about the 2013 Subaru Legacy 2.5i Limited AWD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
Under the trunk lid, the paint was bubbling and is now rusting. Having a hard
time at the dealer to determine if they will cover under the 5 year rust
warranty and i would like to understand why is there even a question. Rust is
rust right? Why wouldn't it be covered?
3 Answers
Thanks Tom. Dealer has been giving me hard time since the summer they said no over the summer because it was only bubbling and not enough came through. They told me to contact subaru which i did and then subaru called the dealer and then called me and told me no, that's a really effective system huh! Since the summer, the rust came through and my husband went back with the car and now the service manager is getting in touch with the district manager and we are still waiting. My husband brought the car into another dealer Thursday for headlights and that dealer said no problem at all it should be covered. Should i just go with them and forget about the dealer we bought the car from?
TheSubaruGuruBoston answered 8 years ago
I too have seen minor paint-seam separation under the modern trunk lids. Scraping it off and treating with Rust Reformer (aka Rust-Mort, Duro Extend et al), which is an epoxy-based latex prim enriched very significantly with phosphoric acid. Use two-three coats, and keep from moisture for 1-2 days. Since the flaking is invisible you needn't bother with touchup. The Subie dealer is NOT prepared to exercise this simple repair, and Subie claims that they're resposible only for rust PERFORATION. But if you don't quench the "fire" (that's what oxidation is) you'll eat through the metal in one to three more salty winters. So keep complaining (maybe they'll toss you $200-300 "good will"?), but don't let it get worse. Next year start looking carefully at the lower door inside edges, as eventually you'll start to see seam separation there too; again, scrape and hit with an acid-sealer to arrest the "burn". Steel hood front inner edges are getting the disease too. Wish they hadn't gotten away from the lovely aluminum hoods of yore....
I think the warranty is for rust through which means they cover body panels that have holes in them, not surface rust.